This news — well, speculation — from the (London) Times:
Boris Johnson hopes that President Biden will agree to exempt vaccinated British and American travellers from quarantine restrictions.
They will meet at the G7 summit in Cornwall, which begins next week, and Johnson will push for a quarantine-free air corridor with the US.
Under one set of proposals, discussed with officials in Washington and Whitehall, people from the US who had received both jabs would not have to self-isolate on arrival here, even if the US was placed on the red list or remained on the amber list.
Plans circulated within government refer to a “green channel” being set up for “fully vaccinated individuals”.
The UK is hoping that people who want to holiday in the US would be given similar exemptions.
The deal would be the first arrangement allowing vaccinated travellers preferential treatment by the UK and would be a diplomatic coup.
This is potentially game-changing. I’ve been whinging for some time about the US not reopening its borders. But there’s also the hassle of quarantine on return to the UK. These proposals deal with both of those issues.
However:
Officials involved in the talks fear that the US administration, whose official policy is still to discourage all international travel, has serious reservations about a bilateral deal.
US officials have made clear to their British counterparts in Washington that any immediate deal is unlikely.
Senior figures in the Biden administration have also made clear to UK ministers that the White House is wary as giving privileges to UK travellers could leave the president vulnerable to international criticism.
His cabinet fears that prioritising a deal with the UK, another wealthy nation with a successful vaccine programme, would send the wrong message to the international community.
Officials have told ministers that granting special dispensation to vaccinated Americans would risk undermining the government’s messaging on international travel restrictions.
As things stand with my current plans, COVID will have resulted in a gap of over two and a half years between my December 2019 trip, and August 2022.
It remains worthy of note that COVID has caused the US to isolate itself from transatlantic travel for well over a year now, with no end yet in sight. That is, of course, unprecedented in the entire history of the US, outside of wartime. It continues to boggle my mind how relaxed you people seem to be about this, as if the US can exist in solitary isolation forever with no consequences to itself.
